Tom Lee's Ethereum Treasury BitMine Prices Preferred Shares With 9.5% Dividend

BitMine Immersion Technologies, the leading Ethereum treasury firm, priced a larger-than-expected preferred stock offering Friday, expecting to raise an estimated $273.8 million in a bet on Ethereum’s growing role in institutional finance.

The company, which trades under the ticker BMNR, sold 3.5 million shares of newly created Series A Perpetual Preferred Stock at $80 per share—up from the 3 million shares it had initially planned to offer. The deal is set to close June 10, pending customary conditions. Moelis & Company and Cantor served as joint lead bookrunners.

The preferred shares will carry a 9.50% annual dividend rate. Notably, the liquidation preference—the amount investors would receive in a wind-down—is designed to float upward based on recent market prices, though it cannot fall below $100 per share. The company has applied to list the new securities on the NYSE under the symbol BMNP.

Proceeds from the offering may be used to acquire additional Ethereum and other digital assets, fund staking infrastructure through its newly launched MAVAN validator network, or buy back common shares.

The offering carries the risks typical of crypto-adjacent investments. Bitmine’s preferred dividend obligations are fixed regardless of how Ethereum prices move, meaning a prolonged downturn in digital asset markets could pressure the company’s finances even as it seeks to attract institutional investors to its novel treasury model.

BitMine pivoted from Bitcoin mining to Ethereum treasury accumulation last summer, amassing billions of dollars on $ETH and fueling a rally for both the coin and its shares with help from the high-profile addition of prominent investor Tom Lee as chairman. (Disclosure: Lee is an investor in Dastan, parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

The firm now holds over $8.6 billion worth of Ethereum, making it the largest player by far among $ETH-focused treasuries. However, Ethereum’s collapse from an all-time high near $5,000 last August to a recent price of $1,591—a more than 67% drop—has put the firm’s holdings more than $10 billion underwater, per data from DropsTab.

BitMine’s stock price has fallen substantially, as well, recently trading at $16—a more than 10.5% drop on the day, and a 41% dive since the start of 2026.

The launch of BitMine’s preferred shares is a nod to Strategy’s success with STRC, its own preferred share offering that has fueled billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin buys so far this year.

Strategy, the largest Bitcoin treasury firm with over $51 billion in BTC, has weathered its own declines of late, with its holdings showing a paper loss of about $12 billion and its stock price falling 36% in the last month alone to a recent price of $118.